She struggled against him. “Nico, I don’t want to do this. Let’s talk—”
“No. If we talk, you’ll have a chance to argue with me, and an argument will only drive another wedge between us. I’m not willing to take that chance. You mean too much to me.”
He pressed his mouth to hers, intending to do no more than gently brush his lips against hers, comfort her, let her know how much he loved her. But he quickly realized that wasn’t what either of them wanted. He could feel the tension changing in her as she grew softer, more pliable, and it made him want to join with her in love and fire and know the feeling of coming apart in her arms.
Impatiently, he stripped off her panties and entered her.
But once sheathed to the hilt in her, he stilled and met her eyes. “Tell me you want me.” His words were a demand, but his tone was begging.
She arched up to him and grasped his buttocks with her hands, trying to pull him deeper. “I want you. Lord, how I want you.”
He began to move inside her, hard and fast, bringing to her and to him a burning, a wildness, a great love.
Dark clouds boiled on the horizon; razor-edged white lightning streaked out of the heavens and bolted straight down to the water. The wind had picked up and blew cool against Caitlin’s face. She could see the storm far out at sea and knew it would be sweeping in over the land soon. She’d go in then, but not until.
Sitting on the thick green carpet of grass, she clasped her hands around her knees and lifted her face to the wind, inhaling the energy and the freshness of air that had never before touched land. There was an exhilaration to a storm at SwanSea that she’d never felt anywhere else.
She heard a jangle of silver, caught a whiff of Opium, and her mother dropped to the grass beside her. “I love watching storms,” she murmured, without looking around.
“I know,” Julia said ruefully. “I can remember more than once trying to find you during a storm, only to discover you standing out here, the wind and the rain whipping around you. You were such a fierce little thing. I always had the feeling you felt that you and SwanSea together could weather anything.”
Caitlin couldn’t help but smile, because she had felt exactly that way. “I've grown up. I’m older and wiser now.”
“But yet I still find you out here.”
“The storm isn’t here yet.” She turned to her mother. With her smooth, unlined skin and wind-tossed hair, Julia still looked as lovely as a young girl, Caitlin thought. “How are you. Mom? We really haven’t had a chance to talk.”
“I think I’m gradually getting over the shock. How about you?”
“The same. I’ve caught glimpses of you and Quinn over the last two days. How are things going?”
Julia shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m enjoying this time with him, but ...”
“But?”
“It's too soon to tell. We’ve been apart for a great many years. And when you think about it, we were really together only two weeks.”
“Ramona told me she’s always felt you were searching for someone, that that’s why you’ve traveled so much.”
“If I have, it hasn’t been conscious.” Her lips pursed thoughtfully. “Do you know that Quinn and I have discovered we were often in the same country at the same time? A lot of times even in the same city. If we’d turned a particular comer at a particular mo-rfient, we might have seen each other. It's ironic.”
“I think it’s sad,” Caitlin said.
“That too. At any rate, whatever happens, I’m glad I finally know why he left me.”
"You thought he’d left you because he didn’t love you enough to stay. You had to have been bitter about that, but if you were, you did a beautiful job of keeping it from me.”
“Oh, I was definitely bitter for a while.” She laughed shortly. “I am human, darling. But then you came along, and I knew that no matter what, I’d thank Quinn my whole life long for you.”
Tears welled into Caitlin’s eyes. “I really love you, Mom, and I admire you so much.”
Julia made a short, dismissing sound. “You put me in the shade, my darling daughter. I would never even have considered attempting what you are doing here with SwanSea.” She reached out and stroked Caitlin’s hair. “Quinn told me that you have the same color hair his mother had. I always wondered where that gorgeous cinnamon shade came from.” She smiled gently and searched for some sign of what Caitlin was feeling. “I’m worried about you. I want you to know that I understand your hesitancy about Quinn. After all, you must have felt terribly abandoned all these years. ”
The odd need to comfort her mother wasn’t new, she realized. She’d known the urge when she was growing up, and now she knew why. “I had you and the family and just about all the love any one person could handle.”
Julia sighed, knowing Caitlin wasn’t ready to address the issue of her father. “I won’t press you, darling, but I hope that in the future you’ll find a way to make peace with Quinn. He needs you, and I think if you 'll let yourself, you’ll come to realize that you need him. But . . . Nico ...”
Caitlin groaned. “Mother. ”
“Yes, I know. You’d like me to stay out of it, and I’m going to. I just want to say that over the last couple of days. I’ve really grown to like him, and it’s obvious to me that he loves and cares about you a great deed. Don’t hold it against him because he didn’t tell you about Quinn. I think It’s completely natural and honorable that he should feel Quinn or I should be the one to break such enormous news to you.”
“I know,” she murmured. The storm was closer now. Caitlin could smell the salt and sulfurous scent In the wind and could feel the electric charge on her skin. The storm would be violent and short. “I know,” she said again.
By midnight, the storm had blown over. She and SwanSea had survived another storm, Caitlin reflected. Usually the thought exhilarated her, but tonight, as she wandered restlessly around Nlco’s bedroom waiting for him, she felt strangely flat. The melodic refrain of “Someone to Watch Over Me” was playing on her tape recorder. It reminded her of the night she had stood wrapped in enchantment and Nico’s arms while the song had flowed around them, and the memory made her feel even more restless.
Disturbed, she opened the bedroom’s French windows and gazed up at the overcast sky. Every once in a while, the moon would break free of the clouds and shine with a silver luminosity. But its freedom lasted mere moments, and then new clouds formed a shroud.
The words of the song drifted through the haze of her thoughts: . . someone to watch over me.”
To try to shield someone you love from being hurt was a part of loving. Nico tried to watch over her; she worried about him. This man Rettig had nearly killed him, and now it appeared Rettig was close again.
Suddenly, her gaze flew back to the overcast sky.
“Oh, my Lord,” she whispered. “Nico’s gone out to the island.”
She left the room, her single thought to help Nico. It was only the sight of Quinn quietly leaving her mother’s room that stopped her cold.
When Quinn glanced around and saw her, his first reaction was guilt that Caitlin had seen him coming from Julia’s room so late at night. He quickly banished the feeling. “I’m sorry if this upsets you, Caitlin, but your mother and I owe you no explanation.”
“You’re right,” she said quietly. “Excuse me.”
She started past him, but he caught her arm. “Wait a minute. There’s something wrong. I can tell it by your face. What is it? Where are you going?”
She pulled against his hold, but surprisingly his grip tightened. “Quinn, I don’t have time for this. Let me go. ”
“I may be retired, Caitlin, but all my agent instincts are still in place. What is it? Is Nico in trouble?”
She made a sound halfway between anger and a sob. “Yes. He’s gone out to the island."
Quinn’s eyes narrowed. “The island. Of course. I thought there was something strange . . . What is it? Drugs?”
She nodded, almost frantic. “Now will you let me go?"
“Yes, but I’m coming with you.”
“No—"
“I’m coming with you, Caitlin, but first we need to stop by my room.”
A short time later, the two of them were in a speedboat, plowing through the dark waves toward the island—Quinn at the wheel, Caitlin beside him.
Before this, she reflected, she’d seen only the pleasant, charming side of him. The past twenty minutes had shown her the steel that had apparently made him so important to the government.
The sea was wild tonight. Spray dampened her skin, blackness enveloped them. She knew these waters well, but she had to admit that she was glad Quinn was with her.
“It shouldn’t be too much farther,” she called.
He shut off the engines. “We’ll paddle in from here. We don’t want to alert anyone we’re coming.” She nodded and said a fervent prayer that Nico was all right.
Ten
The flashlights on the table cast broad beams of light on the two men standing in the center of the pitch-black room. Crouched behind the dustcovered couch, Nico listened, unable to believe his good luck. Not only was Rettig here but also Rettig’s main Canadian contact, Marcus Kozera. The two men had never been seen together.
“This island couldn’t be better,” Kozera was saying. “We’ve made two successful runs, but tonight is our biggest shipment yet, and I wanted to be here to check it out for myself. It’s good. ”
“I told you so,” Rettig said with satisfaction. “It’s never used, isolated from normal shipping routes, and hell, it even has this house on it.” He laughed.
“What about DiFrenza? I’m going to sleep a lot better at night when he’s finally dead and buried.” “There've been too many people around that house for a regular hit. This time, I want it to look like an accident, so there aren’t a bunch of cops swarming around afterward. He’s running longer distances now. Within the next few days, he should have an established route. It’ll be easy to take him out then.”
“Good.”
Rettlg laughed. “Right before I kill him I’m going to thank him for leading us to this island.”
Behind the couch, Nico tensed, his hand tightening on his gun.
A man’s voice burst suddenly into the room, tinny and loud, through a walkie-talkie. “Rettig?”
“Yeah?”
“We’ve got a woman and a man here. Seems they were trying to crash the party. ”
“Who are they?”
“Never saw them before in my life, but I’d sure like to get to know her.”
A cold sweat broke out over Nico. Caitlin and Quinn—it had to be. Dammit. All this situation needed was another complication. He was going to have to rearrange his plans fast. Nothing could happen to Caitlin . . .
“Bring them here,” Rettig said. “Kozera, you know anything about this?”
“No, but I don’t like it.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of them. Besides, the risk is why we make so damn much money.”
Before Kozera could answer, the door opened.
“Don’t hurt her,” Nico heard Quinn say. Nico brought his gun up into firing position. Carefully, he peered over the couch. He could just make out the forms of Caitlin and Quinn. The darkness and Rettig and Kozera’s movements made it risky for him to get off a shot—and the terrifying chance that he might hit Caitlin kept him still.
“I’m fine,” Caitlin said, trying to reassure Quinn. The last time she’d gotten a good look at him, there’d been blood trickling down the side of his face. The man who had come up behind them had struck Quinn for trying to protect her.
“Where’d you find them, Larry?” Rettig asked. “Josh radioed me from the boat that he’d spotted these two heading toward the beach on the east side of the island. I made it a point to be there when they beached.”
“Good job. So . . . who are you?”
Be careful what you say, Nico silently coaxed Caitlin. He wasn’t sure if revealing she was a Deverell would make matters worse or not, but it would be fatal if she asked what they’d done with him.
It was Quinn who answered Rettig. “I’m Quinn O'Neill, and this is my daughter, Caitlin. Our boat conked out on us, and we were trying to find some shelter until morning.”
“They’re lying,” Kozera said.
“Use your head,” Rettig snapped with irritation. “Why would they walk into a situation like this?” “He had a gun,” Larry said.
Rettig’s tone turned ominous. “Really?”
“Sharks,” Caitlin said quickly and managed a shudder. “I’ve seen all the Jaws movies. I wanted to be prepared. Look, if you’ll just let us go, we’ll—” Kozera laughed. “You’ll what? Paddle your way back to wherever you came from and use the first phone you find to call the police? I don’t think so.”
“You talk too much, Kozera,” Rettig said coldly. “It doesn’t matter where they came from or where they think they’re going.” He drew his gun. “Larry, get back out there and guard the shipment. We won’t be much longer. We’ll take care of these two, and then we’ll join you.”
Larry left the cottage. Behind the couch, Nico prepared to make his move.
Caitlin could feel herself trembling, but there was too much to think about to be sidetracked by fear. Desperately she tried to rule out all emotion that could block clear thinking. She would never know where Nico was unless they could get out of here alive. She thought her knowledge of the Island would give her and Quinn the advantage, but first they had to get away. “Maybe we could make a deal,” she began.
Rettig’s teeth flashed in the darkness. “I’d love to, sweetheart, but unfortunately I have pressing business. And business always come first.” He cocked his gun.
“No!” With blind Instinct she started toward the gun.
“Get out of here, Caitlin!” Quinn yelled as he shoved her out of the way and hurled himself past her at the two men.
As Caitlin lost her balance and crashed to the floor, Rettig’s gun went off, and Nico vaulted the sofa and launched himself toward Kozera and Rettig. He swung the butt of his gun against Rettig’s temple and followed up with a karate chop to Kozera’s neck.
In less than a minute, it was over, and Nico was reaching for Caitlin. “My God, are you all right?”
"Yes.” Her elbow ached, having caught most of her weight when she had fallen, but it didn’t seem important. “I’m so glad you’re here. I was so afraid for you. Oh heavens, what about Quinn?”
“Quinn?” Nico asked, cradling Caitlin against his chest.
“He got me, but it’s just a flesh wound.” His voice was calm and steady.
“You’re shot?” Caitlin said, struggling to see, but Quinn was lying in the shadows.
“Stay where you are,” he said. “I’ll be all right. You were wonderful, by the way.”
“Not as wonderful as you,” she said, meaning it with all her heart.
“Nico, sorry you had to take those two out by yourself. ”
Nico stroked Caitlin's hair, wishing he could see her more clearly. He'd known a terrible rage when Rettig had pointed his gun at her. “No problem.” “So I noticed,” Quinn said, his tone dry.
Nico could tell that Quinn was making a terrible effort to keep his words even. The man was in trouble, he thought, and he’d bet money it was more than a flesh wound. “Save your strength. Don’t try to move. Well get you out of here as fast as we can.” The door opened, and a flashlight beam panned around the room. “Nico?” a deep voice called. “About time you got here,” Nico said sharply. Footsteps crossed the floor toward them. “Give me a break. There were two boats out there, you know, with two men on each of them. That makes four in case you’ve forgotten how to add. Of course, I did have an advantage, being from Texas and all.”
The flashlight swept the floor, finding Quinn, then the two men who lay incapacitated on the floor. When the light reached Nico and Caitlin, it bypassed Nico and went straight to Cai
tlin. She dropped her eyes from the glare of the light and saw the pointed toes of a pair of snakeskin cowboy boots.
“Is this Caitlin?” the deep voice asked.
“Yes, and get that damned light off us.”
The light stayed perfectly steady. “Glad to meet you, ma’am. Amarillo Smith at your service. ”
The blades of the helicopter sliced powerfully through the air, making a loud rushing sound as it squatted on the beach, waiting for its passengers. Holding Quinn’s hand, Caitlin bent over his stretcher. “We've contacted Julia. She’ll meet you at the hospital.”
“That’s very kind of you.” He tried to pat her hand and grimaced with pain. “You’re not to worry about me. It’s nothing, you know.”
“I know.” She was surprised to find her eyes filling with tears. On the other side of him, Nico applied a pressure bandage to the wound in Quinn’s chest. “Quinn, when the hospital lets you go, I want you to come back to SwanSea to recuperate. Ramona and I can look after you. I’m sure Mom will be there too. SwanSea can be a little hectic with all the work that’s going on, but Nico was able to regain his strength there, and so will you.”
“Are you sure, Caitlin?” Quinn asked.
She wiped at her eyes and smiled down at him. “I’m sure.” A quick glance told her that the medics were ready to put him aboard the helicopter. She pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’ll see you soon.” The helicopter lifted off into the approaching dawn. Nico took a firm grip on her arms and turned her to face him. “It was very brave of you to come out here after me, Caitlin, and maybe I'll appreciate it after I get over remembering how damned scared I was when I saw the danger you’d walked into. But if you ever do anything that stupid again, I will strangle you.” He kissed her with a ferocity that showed her how much he loved her. When he broke off the kiss, it was a moment before their breathing returned to normal.
“Let’s go home," he said. “Rill can clean things up here. There’s something there I have to show you.”
The Legacy Page 15